Department for Transport

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Baroness Randerson: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they haveto introduce regulations to enforce simpler payment methods for electric vehicle charging; and whether they intend to base this on a universal payment card similar to the system in the Netherlands.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Government will regulate to mandate contactless payment for all newly installed, faster chargepoints. The regulations will also apply to all existing chargepoints at and over 50kW one year after the legislation comes into effect. The Government intends to lay legislation in the coming months. In addition, the Government intends to mandate payment roaming to enable streamlined payment via mobile phone apps. This will enable consumers to be able to pay to charge across multiple networks using a single app or radio frequency identity (RFID) card.

Road Traffic Offences

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of sections 148, 149 and 161 of the Highways Act 1980.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Department has made no such assessment. Highway authorities are responsible for managing their road networks and for issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for offences under these sections of the Highways Act 1980.

Road Traffic Offences: Cycling

Lord Blencathra: To ask His Majesty's Government when theyintend to introduce a new offence of causing death by dangerous cycling, as outlined by the former Secretary of State for Transport on 5 August 2022.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: We are planning to publish our response to the cycling offences consultation as soon as we can and have already announced that we are considering bringing forward legislation to introduce new offences around dangerous cycling. We will do that as part of a suite of measures to improve the safety of all road and pavement users.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Baroness Randerson: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mandate acceptance of payments using credit cards for electric vehicle charge points.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Government will regulate to mandate contactless payment for all newly installed faster chargepoints. The regulations will also apply to all existing chargepoints at and over 50kW one year after the legislation comes into effect. The Government intends to lay legislation in the coming months.

Department of Health and Social Care

Food: Safety

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask His Majesty's Government how many recorded breaches there have been of the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 since 2013.

Lord Markham: The Food Standards Agency does not hold a list of formal action taken against legislative non-compliance of The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995. The enforcement of food law is delegated to competent authorities including local authorities. Any data that is collected would be held centrally by each local authority responsible for conducting food hygiene official controls.

Department for Education

Out-of-School Education

Baroness Blower: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Barran on 20 February (HL5424),why they do not collate statistical data on the proportion of children’s education spent with unregistered providers.

Baroness Blower: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Barran on 20 February (HL5425),why they do not collate statistical data on the proportion of children with (1) special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), or (2) an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP), receiving their education from unregistered providers.

Baroness Barran: The department does collect information on pupils in local authority placements who are placed with unregistered providers in the alternative provision (AP) census and, since 2022, arrangements made by schools via the schools’ census. This includes whether a child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan.The department collects the number of sessions that children spend in their current placement during a reference week for the school and (AP) censuses, but not how much time in each location over a full academic year.

Out-of-School Education

Baroness Thornton: To ask His Majesty's Government how many Pupil Referral Units sub-commission unregistered alternative providers to supply education placements for their children.

Baroness Barran: Since the 2022/23 academic year, the department has started to collect data from schools via the school census about the alternative provision (AP) they arrange. This includes AP in unregistered settings. The first mandatory collection is currently being carried out within the spring census, and so the information is not yet available.

Out-of-School Education

Baroness Thornton: To ask His Majesty's Government how many pupils registered with a state-funded school spend (1) less than two days per week, (2) two or more days per week, (3) three or more days per week, and (4) four or more days per week, in an education placement with an unregistered alternative provider.

Baroness Barran: Via the alternative provision census, the department collects information on pupils aged 2-18 who local authorities have placed in unregistered providers.Since the 2022/23 academic year, the department has also collected information on placements made by schools via the school census, with the first mandatory collection being in the spring census. The information is not currently available whilst the spring census is collected and returns validated.

Out-of-School Education

Baroness Thornton: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) mean, and (2) median, amount spent on an unregistered alternative provider place in England by (a) Pupil Referral Units, (b) state-funded schools not classified as a Pupil Referral Unit, and (3) local authorities.

Baroness Barran: Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils in unregistered alternative provision providers by local authorities. Since 2022, this data is also collected on arrangements made by schools. This is collected via the schools census.Information on the mean or median amount spent by Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), state funded schools not classified as PRUs, or local authorities is not collected by the department, and cannot be derived from this data.

Welsh Language: Secondary Education

Lord Wigley: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable the teaching of the Welsh language as a subject in state secondary schools in England.

Baroness Barran: It is up to schools to decide which languages are taught as part of their curriculum at secondary phase.The Welsh language is a valuable part of our nation’s heritage and is an important aspect in fostering UK wide cohesion. When deciding which languages to offer their pupils, state funded secondary schools in England are likely to consider the needs of the communities that they serve and may decide to offer Welsh.

Out-of-School Education

Baroness Thornton: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total spend on unregistered alternative provider education placements in England, broken down by (1) school, (2) local authority, and (3) region of England.

Baroness Barran: Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils in unregistered alternative provision providers by local authorities. Since 2022, this data is also collected on arrangements made by schools. This is collected via the schools census.Information on the total spend on unregistered alternative education placements by school, local authority, or region, is not collected by the department, and cannot be derived from this data.

Apprentices

Lord Storey: To ask His Majesty's Government what was the age profile of apprentices in each of the last three years.

Baroness Barran: The following table shows apprenticeship learner participation by age with percentage breakdowns. Academic Year  2019/202020/212021/22Learner ParticipationTotal 718,950712,990740,350Under 19135,670118,590126,42019-24250,870248,870255,26025+332,510345,540358,680Percentage Learner ParticipationTotal100%100%100%Under 1918.9%16.6%17.1%19-2434.9%34.9%34.5%25+46.2%48.5%48.4%

Ministry of Justice

Trees: Injuries

The Earl of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government how many times a local authority has been brought to court in each year between 2018 and 2022 for cases involving injury due to fallen trees.

Lord Bellamy: The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, between the year ending June 2018 and year ending June 2022 in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2022.This information can be filtered to ‘Companies, public bodies etc.’, however, whether the defendant was a local authority and whether the offence was in relation to injury due to fallen trees specifically is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate cost.

Children: Civil Liberties

Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede: To ask His Majesty's Government, how many parents whose children were subject to applications to deprive them of their liberty under (1) the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, and (2) a secure accommodation order, were legally represented during the court proceedings in the last five years; and what percentage of such parents this represents.

Lord Bellamy: Information regarding legal representation of parents whose children were subject to applications to deprive them of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court is held by the government as unstructured information within the family court administrative system and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Information regarding the number of respondents that were legally represented in cases where children were subject to applications to deprive them of their liberty under a secure accommodation order is provided in the table below (this does not include the children themselves who are always entitled to legal representation). Applications for secure accommodation orders for children can, and often are, made as standalone applications following the conclusion of proceedings which may have taken place to remove the child from the care of their parents, meaning their involvement in the new proceedings may be limited which in turn may limit the requirement for legal representation. In other instances, proceedings may be made at the request of the parents themselves and they therefore work alongside the local authority without separate legal representation.  Cases / Respondents with Application for Secure Accommodation OrderIssued January 2018 to September 2022  Management InformationYear of Issue of ApplicationCases*Respondents**Represented Respondents†% Represented201849988618521%201948385615218%202037968214121%202138971413319%To end September 20222224066015% 1,9723,54467119%  * Cases with at least one application in the period for a secure accommodation order **Respondents include, but are not limited to, parents of the child.† Representative is recorded on case management system as acting for the partyThis is Management Information, the data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time and may differ from previously published data. In July 2022 the President of the Family Division launched a national deprivation of liberty (DOL) court at the Royal Courts of Justice for a pilot period of 12 months. This pilot is being monitored by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory who have full access to the data. The Government will consider carefully the results of this pilot when they are available.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Football: Regulation

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the establishment of the new independent football regulator; and what assessment they have made of the impact the regulator will have on the financial stability of English football.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: On 23 February 2023, the Government published plans to reform club football governance. This set out that we will create a new regulator for football, independent of the Government and industry.We recognise the need for urgent action to safeguard the future of football clubs throughout the English football pyramid, so will legislate to put the regulator on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.As the White Paper makes clear, the Government is also actively exploring establishing a shadow regulator ahead of legislation.

Cultural Heritage: Iraq

The Lord Bishop of Southwark: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the work of a British Museum team in the discovery of an early Sumerian Palace at Girsu/Tello, funded by the Getty Museum, and (2) making provision of similar funding for the training of Iraqi archaeologists and the conservation of Iraq’s antiquities under the Cultural Heritage Protection Programme.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: His Majesty’s Government is proud of the partnership between the British Museum, the Getty Museum and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities. HM Government supports the protection of cultural heritage – particularly in regions at risk from conflict, instability and climate change – through the Cultural Protection Fund, which includes support for training and education.Since its inception, the Cultural Protection Fund has supported and continues to support a number of projects in both Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. This included the Iraq Scheme which from 2015 to 2021 trained over 50 staff from the State Board of Antiquities. The Girsu Project builds on the legacy of the scheme and we congratulate the British Museum for its part in recent excavations in Tello.In November 2022, 17 new Cultural Protection Fund projects were awarded funding. Four of these will support the preservation of cultural heritage in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. The projects include archaeological training, safeguarding folk music, and the preservation of maritime craft and life in the wetlands of Southern Iraq.

Media: Legal Costs

Lord Truscott: To ask His Majesty's Government when they propose to enact section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: The Government will not be enacting section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. The Conservative Party manifesto published in 2019 set out our intention to repeal section 40 and the Government has now committed to doing so via the Media Bill as announced in The Queen’s Speech.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Water: Pollution

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking toimprove water quality in Hertfordshire.

Lord Benyon: Improving water quality remains a government priority. We have set new targets under the Environment Act to address major pressures on water. This will significantly reduce pollution from agriculture, wastewater treatment works and abandoned metal mines pollution. In August 2022 HM Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 10% in 2015 to almost 90% now monitored, and we will reach 100% cover by end of this year. It is this increase in monitoring which has revealed the extent of the sewage discharge problem, rather than the problem becoming worse over the years. Water company investment in environmental improvements has been scaled up to £7.1 billion over the period 2020-25. This includes £3.1 billion invested in storm overflow improvements on approximately 800 storm overflows, 8 of which are in the Hertfordshire and North London area. In Hertfordshire, actions water companies take during this planning period will improve or protect over 200km of watercourse and support meeting Water Framework Directive objectives. HM Government has doubled the budget of the Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership to £15m per year and provided new funding to the Environment Agency (EA) to increase farm inspections to at least 4,000 inspections a year in 2023. The EA works with local farmers across Hertfordshire to mitigate and prevent agricultural pollution. EA teams have visited 15 farms in the Hertfordshire and North London area already this year.

Eggs: Supply Chains

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address issues with the egg supply chain.

Lord Benyon: The UK egg industry operates in an open market and the value of egg commodities, including the farm gate egg price, is established by those in the supply chain including farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. Recognising the challenges that the agricultural industry, including the egg sector, is facing due to the rise of input costs as a result of the war in Ukraine, the Government has put in place a number of measures to support supply chains. These include cuts to VAT and fuel duty and support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. We also recognise that both the poultry and egg sectors have been impacted by Avian Influenza. Defra announced changes to the Avian Influenza compensation scheme on 28 October and granted a concession to the rules for the labelling of free-range eggs from poultry that have been housed under Avian Influenza Prevention Zone with mandatory housing measures for longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies. The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries hosted an egg industry roundtable on 6 December 2022. This involved representatives from across the UK egg supply chain. The roundtable focused on the various challenges that the sector is facing. The meeting was productive with a clear willingness from all parties to address issues affecting the supply chain. Defra continues to work closely with the egg sector and to monitor the egg market through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG).

Fruit and Vegetables

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps theyare taking to address issues of supply for fruit and vegetables.

Lord Benyon: We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables are predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced. These issues have been caused by unseasonal weather hampering production and harvest during December and January.We are aware some supermarkets are limiting sales of certain fruit and vegetables. While short term supplies might be tight, overall, the supply chain is robust, and we are keeping the market under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.The capability, levers, and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response. UK Food Security remains resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigate supply problems through alternative sourcing options.We work with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, including with the Edible Horticulture Roundtable Group (EHRG), as well as with other key stakeholders, such as the British Growers Association (BGA) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) to monitor and assess the current market situation. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UK AMMG).Minister Spencer will be holding an industry roundtable with supermarkets on Monday 27 February to explore their plans for a return to normal supplies and contingencies for dealing with these supply chain problems.The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response and is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Defra has a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption, should it occur.

Home Office

Asylum

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals who arrived in the UK by small boats in the last two years have had a decision on their application for asylum; and of those that have had a decision, how many were granted asylum.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ report and on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ on gov.uk.The latest data on the asylum outcomes of small boat arrivals is published in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK, year ending December 2022’ release. Data on all asylum applications is published in table Asy_D01 of the asylum and resettlement datasets.The Home Office does not publish the duration time of asylum-seeking small boat arrivals awaiting a decision. However, data on all asylum applications awaiting a decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the asylum and resettlement datasets.Immigration Statistics (xlsx, 119.4KB)

Asylum

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have arrived in the UK in the last two years seeking asylum; how many of those seeking asylum arrived by small boats; and of those who arrived by small boats, how many (1) waited, or (2) are waiting, for over six months to have a decision made on their asylum application.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ report and on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ on gov.uk.The latest data on the asylum outcomes of small boat arrivals is published in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK, year ending December 2022’ release. Data on all asylum applications is published in table Asy_D01 of the asylum and resettlement datasets.The Home Office does not publish the duration time of asylum-seeking small boat arrivals awaiting a decision. However, data on all asylum applications awaiting a decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the asylum and resettlement datasets.Immigration Statistics (xlsx, 119.4KB)

Asylum: Children

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Murray of Blidworth on 21 February (HL5629),whether they now plan to make an assessment of organised criminal gangs targeting unaccompanied children seeking asylum and being accommodated in hotels, given the statement by Greater Manchester Police that they have intelligence confirming the hotel networks used to house asylum seekers are targeted by organised criminal gangs, and that children are put to work selling drugs within weeks of arriving in the UK.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in emergency interim hotels are safe and supported whilst we seek urgent placements with a local authority. Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of specialist social workers and nurses We have no power to detain UASC in hotels and we know some do go missing. Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located. Children’s movements in and out of hotels are monitored and recorded and they are accompanied by support workers when attending organised activities and social excursions off-site, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified When any young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. A multi-agency, missing persons protocol is mobilised involving the police and the local authority, who have a shared statutory responsibility to safeguard all children, including missing migrant children, in order to establish their whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Buildings: Insulation

Lord Naseby: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherthey are approaching foreign developers and cladding manufacturers to secure contributions to fix cladding issues.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The Government have made it clear that they expect all those who contribute and profited from affected buildings to take responsibility for fixing them. As part of this, we expect developers to do the right thing, irrespective of where they are based. The developer remediation contract published on 30 January is an important step towards making sure this happens. A number of developers with overseas owners have been invited to sign the contract.Furthermore, the Building Safety Levy can be charged on new residential developments that require building control approval. As it will be charged as part of the building control process, all developers will have to pay it on developments that are in scope - regardless of whether they are based in the UK or not.The Department's Recovery Strategy Unit has also spearheaded legal action against recalcitrant freeholders and is actively investigating the concerning conduct of various companies across the built environment, including contractors and construction product manufacturers.

Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel

Lord Storey: To ask His Majesty's Government, furtherto the Written Answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 22 February (HL3776), what assessment they have made of the impact of not yet announcing when the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel will meet.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: I can confirm to the noble Lord that the first meeting of the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel took place on 6 March 2023.

Tenancy Agreements

Lord Truscott: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of theeffectiveness of replacing assured shorthold tenancies with periodic tenancies; and what assessment they have made of the benefits of doing that.

Lord Truscott: To ask His Majesty's Government whatassessment they have made of the potential for increasing the use of periodic tenancies in the UK; and whether they have examined the use of periodic tenancies in other countries in making any such assessment.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The department has carefully considered the decision to move to periodic tenancies, as part of the forthcoming reforms to renting in England, and has consulted and engaged with stakeholders from the private and social rented sectors on tenancy reform changes over several years. This engagement will continue.

Homelessness: Rural Areas

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they aretaking to provide accommodation for homeless people in rural communities.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The Government is spending £2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the next three years. The vast majority of this funding is being provided to local authorities across England to enable them to meet need in their area, including in rural communities.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Internet: Pornography

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government whatassessment they have made of how effective the enforcement procedures in the Online Safety Bill will be in relation to operators of online pornography services.

Viscount Camrose: In the event of non-compliance, Ofcom will have the necessary powers to take appropriate and proportionate enforcement action to secure compliance from all services in scope of the Online Safety framework, including operators of online pornography services. This includes the power to require companies to take certain steps, the power to issue large fines, and powers to disrupt the ability of companies to operate in the UK.

TikTok: Data Protection

Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the data security threat posed by TikTok.

Viscount Camrose: The government does not routinely comment on security matters, but data security is paramount and we always take the requisite steps to protect data. We continue to monitor the threats to our data and will not hesitate to take further action if necessary to protect our national security.Like all businesses, we expect Tiktok to fully comply with our privacy laws (UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18). Organisations which fail to comply may be investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office and where appropriate subject to enforcement action, including fines.

Department for Business and Trade

Vacancies

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address labour shortages.

Lord Johnson of Lainston: The Government is reforming the skills system to better support people to get the skills our economy needs, which is essential to addressing labour shortages. The Government is supporting employers in all sectors to develop the skilled workforces they need by investing £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the Parliament, offering flexible training through Skills Bootcamps, and increased investment in apprenticeships. In December 2022, the Government published its response to the consultation “making flexible working the default”. This committed to make changes to the Right to Request Flexible Working to boost availability, several of which are being taken forward through the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill. Additionally, the Department for Work and Pensions are reviewing workforce participation and how we can attract and retain workers, particularly older workers. This will work to address labour shortages in both the short and long term.

Iron and Steel: Manufacturing Industries

Lord West of Spithead: To ask His Majesty's Government whether the UK has a strategic need to maintain a steel industry; and if not, how it can ensure industrial resilience.

Lord Johnson of Lainston: The UK steel industry not only underpins a range of domestic industries, it forms the core of some local communities and economies. The Government remains committed to a UK steel industry and a decarbonised future, supporting local economic growth and our levelling-up agenda.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

National Grid: Manufacturing Industries

Lord Naseby: To ask His Majesty's Government what urgent steps they are taking to reduce the multi-year delays facing technology companies, particularly those working on fuel cells, trying to get connected to the electricity grid.

Lord Callanan: The Government is working with Ofgem, network companies and others to improve connection processes, embed best practice and release network capacity. This will help ensure timely connections to the network, including for technology companies. In addition, Ofgem's price control funds investment in the network for new connections. As part of the 2023-28 electricity distribution network price control, Ofgem will allow £3.1bn for network upgrades. These actions should translate into accelerated connection timescales for projects across the country.

Cabinet Office

Public Sector: Contracts

Lord Leong: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to tackle fraud in public sector contracts; and what estimate they have made of how much money was lost to fraud in each of the last three years.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), established in August 2022, works with government departments to help public bodies understand and reduce the impact of fraud and error against the public sector. The support provided includes monitoring compliance against the Government Counter Fraud Functional Standards GovS013. These standards are referenced within the Government Commercial Functional Standards GovS008 to signpost counter fraud best practices to commercial colleagues across government. The Procurement Bill will strengthen the counter fraud response in procurement and contracts by extending the grounds for exclusion and establishing a debarment list. In 2021/2022 government departments detected c£224m in fraud related to public procurement and contracts (outside of tax and welfare). This figure is an increase on previous years (£169m in 2019/20 and £125m in 2020/21).

Energy: Lighting

Lord Storey: To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to installing motion sensitive lights in (1) government, and (2) public, buildings to reduce energy costs.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: As set out in the Net Zero Strategy, the Government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037. To support this, £2.5 billion is being invested through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme over the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25 to provide grants for public sector bodies in England to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures.The Office for Government Property has published the Net Zero Estate Playbook providing guidance to support government property organisations to decarbonise their estate. This includes recommendations of how to reduce operational energy use, including through fabric improvements, which may include motion sensitive lights.The Government Property Agency (GPA) has a Net Zero Programme which is looking to retrofit LED lighting across the government office portfolio with motion controls. To date over 20,000 lights have been upgraded to more efficient LEDs.

Liz Truss

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Neville-Rolfe on 20 February (HL5518),why revealing only the cost of (1) a car and driver, and (2) security protection, will affect the security arrangements; and whether they will now reconsider and answer the question put.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Across successive governments, it has been long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on the security arrangements for protected individuals. To do so could compromise the integrity of those arrangements and affect the security of the individuals concerned.Whilst the requested information in isolation may seem innocuous, granular information on spending – especially if mixed with other information - could allow specific individuals perceived to have lower levels of protection to be targeted by hostile actors.

Treasury

Business: Taxation

Lord Truscott: To ask His Majesty's Government, what plans they have to tax UK businesses, aside from the private rented housing sector, on turnover rather than profits.

Baroness Penn: The Government acknowledges the potential challenges and distortions that can arise from revenue-based taxes, and it does not currently plan to introduce another revenue-based tax. The UK has introduced a 2 per cent tax on the revenues derived from providing a social media platform, search engine or online marketplace to UK users: the Digital Services Tax (DST). However, the UK’s DST is an interim solution to widely held concerns with international corporate tax. The Government has introduced the Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) – a temporary 45% additional levy on extraordinary returns from 1 January 2023. It applies to generation from renewable (including biomass), nuclear and energy from waste sources. The EGL applies to revenues from selling electricity for a period above a benchmark price, which is set at approximately 50% more than the average price of electricity over the last decade. The Government has introduced a number of measures to ensure that large multinational businesses with entities in a number of jurisdictions pay their fair share of Corporation Tax in the UK. These include introducing the Diverted Profits Tax in April 2015 and the Corporate Interest Restriction Rules in 2017, which are designed to prevent profits attributable to UK activities from being shifted overseas. The Government keeps the tax system under constant review.

Domicil

Lord Leigh of Hurley: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the net change in revenue to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs of abolishing the non-domiciled individual status in the UK.

Baroness Penn: HMRC publishes annual statistics on information about individuals claiming non-domiciled status in the UK. The latest information shows that non-UK domiciled taxpayers are estimated to have been liable to pay over £7.9 billion in UK income tax, capital gains tax and National Insurance contributions in 2020-21 and have invested over £6 billion in the UK using the Business Investment Relief scheme introduced in 2012.

Women and Equalities

Pornography: Internet

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact ofviolent and abusive online pornography on violence against women and girls.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The Government Equalities Office published 2 reports in 2021 on the relationship between pornography and harmful sexual practices, including violence against women and girls. These are ‘The relationship between pornography use and harmful sexual behaviours’ and ‘The relationship between pornography use and harmful sexual attitudes and behaviours: a literature review’. These are available on GOV.UK.The reports indicate that there is not one single factor that leads someone to engage in harmful sexual behaviour, rather it is a combination of factors which interact with one another to differing effects on each individual. No causal link could be established between porn use and harmful sexual practices as the evidence can not establish if the use of porn leads to harmful sexual practices, or if it is the other way round. Conclusively establishing such a link would require impractical and unethical study conditions (exposing individuals who have never seen it, to porn).